ACU continues conference play this weekend with its first road series of the season, as it travels to New Orleans looking to better its 1-2 Southland record.
The Wildcats opened conference play last weekend with a three-game series against the University of Incarnate Word, and dropped the first two games before winning Sunday’s match up behind seven innings of no-hit baseball from junior Drew Hanson. ACU then played UT-Arlington on Wednesday and defeated them 9-1, bringing its overall mark to 9-7.
In game one of the series against UIW, ACU led 2-0 before UIW scored one in the third and two in the to take a 3-2 lead. Senior Russell Crippen drove in sophomore Derek Scott in the 7th to tie the game up, but both teams left runners on base in the later innings to force extras.
In the 11th, UIW took advantage of senior closer, Brandon Lambright’s extra inning of work and scored three, and even though the Wildcats got the bases loaded, they couldn’t bring anyone around as they fell to the Cardinals 6-3 in 11.
ACU held the lead again in Saturday’s game, 4-2, and UIW couldn’t touch junior pitcher Case Rolen. Rolen went seven innings and struck out eight while allowing one walk and two unearned runs. In the later innings, however, UIW used the change of pitchers to its advantage as it scored two in the 8th and one in the 9th, and took the win 5-4.
On Sunday, ACU’s bats got to work early and scored two runs in the 4th inning. The Wildcats kept the lead the whole game and even got a scoreless outing from their pitchers as they picked up the 5-0 win to avoid the sweep. Hanson didn’t allow a hit until the first pitch of the 8th inning. Brandon Lambright finished the eight and the ninth with scoreless relief to preserve the win.
Against UTA, the Wildcats avenged a loss to the Mavericks earlier in the season and improved to 1-0 on the road. Despite UTA’s 5-1 record and recent upset of No. 4 Texas Tech, ACU dominated UTA’s pitching early by posting up a five-run 2nd, tied for its most runs in an inning this season.
Freshman Nick Skeffington picked up his first collegiate win after 5 2/3 innings of work, and the offense was led by junior transfer Luis Trevino(4-4, 3 RBI), who picked up his 20th RBI, which is already more than last year’s team leader of 19. Freshman Anthony Dominguez also contributed to the offensive output, as he knocked his first collegiate home run to push the score to it eventual final at 9-1.
The Wildcats now continue on the road with their two-game win streak and UNO welcomes them with a 10-7 overall record. However, the Privateers are winless in conference after an 0-3 weekend against Southeastern Louisiana. The Wildcats play Friday at 6:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m., and Sunday at 1 p.m.
